Remember when the scariest thing a computer could do was call another computer? In 1983, WarGames handed a teenage hacker a modem and a direct line to NORAD. Ronald Reagan watched the film at Camp David and asked his Joint Chiefs if it could actually happen. A week later, General Vessey came back with the answer: it's worse than you think. Fifteen months after that, Reagan signed NSDD-145, the first national security directive to treat computer hacking as a real threat. A teen movie became the origin story of federal cybersecurity policy. We trace the real phone phreaking scene, the real kids breaking into military systems for fun, and a Cold War apparatus that put the fate of civilization on a hair trigger and then connected it to a phone line.
Part one of two, because we couldn't shut up.
We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.
Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.
email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com
Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.
